Foodics Buys Norma AI as Restaurant Tech Bets on Data
The Riyadh-based restaurant software group has completed its purchase of Norma AI, the Greek analytics start-up whose natural-language tools are already used across more than 10,000 customer branches.
Foodics, the Riyadh-based restaurant management platform, has completed its acquisition of Norma AI, a Greek analytics company whose software lets restaurant teams ask questions of their own sales data in plain language. The deal was reported on 22 June.
What Foodics bought
The purchase turns a partnership into ownership. Foodics took a minority stake in Norma in the first quarter of 2025, integrated its tools into the Foodics platform, and has now taken the company outright. Norma’s team has moved into Foodics’ AI division, and its Analytics Agent and business intelligence application are being merged fully into the platform.
Norma was founded by George Henein and Anastasios Anastasiadis. In 2024 it launched a business intelligence application that lets users query their data in natural language, get immediate answers and build their own dashboards without technical skills. Foodics says Norma’s technology has already been adopted across more than 10,000 customer branches. Terms were not disclosed by the companies; EnterpriseAM described the price as seven figures, paid from a fund Foodics had set aside for acquisitions.
Why data is the point
Foodics says it serves more than 40,000 branches across the GCC and North Africa. Founded in 2014, it sells cloud-based point-of-sale systems, self-ordering kiosks, online ordering, business intelligence and embedded financial services, and says more than $12 billion in gross merchandise value runs through its platform. A system that sits at the till sees every order, and the Norma acquisition is about what to do with that record.
Chief executive Ahmad AlZaini said the industry’s data had grown more complicated as the industry itself did, and that turning it into fast, confident decisions had become one of operators’ hardest problems. He said the deal accelerates Foodics’ product roadmap and its work on agentic AI, tools meant to support operating decisions in real time. Norma’s co-founder said joining Foodics gives his company the scale to spread the technology faster.
The commercial logic is also stated plainly. Foodics’ CRO, Belal Zahran, told EnterpriseAM the aim is to become so embedded in an operator’s daily routine that customers do not leave, and that premium AI tiers are on the roadmap as a direct revenue line. In that sense, an analytics tool is a retention tool as well as a reporting one.
A pattern of buying
EnterpriseAM noted that the Norma buyout follows last year’s acquisition of the UK online-ordering platform SoloVenture, and stakes in the accounting system Add and the food supply-chain platform Arzaq Plus. Foodics had said in February 2025 that it intended to set aside $100 million for expansion and acquisitions. For the wider deal landscape, see our investment analysis.
What operators should ask
For restaurant owners the useful questions are practical ones. Does the tool pull together dine-in, delivery and inventory in one view? Can a manager without a data background use it? And what will the premium tiers cost? The pressures that make such tools attractive are visible in our cloud-kitchen analysis, where commissions, discovery costs and thin margins leave little room for guesswork.
Sources & fact-check5
- Foodics strengthens AI ambitions with full acquisition of NormaSharikat Mubasher, 22 June 2026
- Foodics acquires AI firm Norma to expand hospitality technology capabilitiesFast Company Middle East, June 2026
- Foodics acquires Greece-based hospitality business Norma AIVerdict Food Service, June 2026
- Foodics buys out Norma AI in seven-figure acquisitionEnterpriseAM, June 2026
- Foodics plans to earmark $100M for expansion, acquisitionsArgaam, February 2025
Every name, number and date in this story was checked against the sources above before publication. Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we correct errors openly. See our editorial standards.
